Some of the currently available magnetic recording devices comprise a cassette loading mechanism which is driven only at a single side thereof due to the limitation in space arrangement, which cassette loading mechanism provides a loading kinematic action to only one side of the cassette to be loaded. This may induce an instable loading operation if the opposite side of the cassette is subjected to friction or other resistance in moving in the loading route.
To address the instability problem, another type of prior art cassette loading mechanism adopts gear trains arranged substantially symmetrical about the cassette to be loaded to provide a symmetrical loading movement at both sides of the cassette. The principal disadvantage of this type prior art arrangement is that in order to avoid interference with the operation of recording or re-playing of the apparatus, the gear trains and the related mechanism have to be disposed close to the top side or bottom side of the recording apparatus housing. This inevitably expands the size or volume of the recording apparatus, and is also in conflict with the world trend of miniaturization for home appliances.
It is therefore desirable to provide a cassette loading mechanism which is a single side driven mechanism but adopts a symmetrical linkage to act upon the opposite side simultaneously so as to overcome the problem of instability while not substantially increasing the overall size thereof.